2012-06-05 - Heroes Crisis: Downtown Underground
New York, New York. It's a hell of a town. And since the disappearance of all the heroes, the near beheading of SHIELD's command structure, the massive uprising by supervillains, and now a massive alien invasion.. It pretty much is for real. The National Guard has been deployed, and the remnants of SHIELD's New York Field Office are helping with urban combat. Sweeping sectors occupied by the alien invaders building by building, block by block. Against an enemy that outguns them, outmaneuvers them, and is deadly in hand to hand combat. This is what they signed on for. This is what they live for. This is what they may die for. All these things ran through Agent Twenty-Five's mind from time to time, but the man was like a pillar in these dire times. Fighting aliens and helping civilians get to safety. He was a SHIELD agent but he took pride in his job, for himit was about protecting his family and friends from disasters like this occuring. That was one of many thoughts racing through Ben's mind, but he kept his focus on the task at hand. The group had been assigend to helping clear out Grand Central Station. It was feared a large number of evacuues had run to there for shelter, right after the subway systme had been taken down. So the possibilities of mass hostages, or even worse paranoid citizens with guns shooting at anything that moved was within. Agent Twenty-Five was from New York, born and raised so he was well aware of the ins and outs of the city to say the least, but Grand Central Station? A time like this? It was suicide in the Agent's mind, they were being sent into a death trap, so every precaution was necessary at times like these. Safety wasn't just protocol, it was a necessity for survival. The Agent and his team advanced into the station slowly but surely, scouting every dark corner cautiously. Working in groups, using motion scanners to locate knots of people and aliens. They were lucky and a tech had determined early on that the aliens had a distinct body temperature difference from base humans. In the cool underground of Grand Central Station, it meant that they could tell when a cluster of aliens was moving and separate them from the humans by watching heat patterns. For once, Tech and R&D had come through like a Star Trek Episode. Up ahead, they were picking up three trios of aliens guarding roughly a hundred people. Agent Twenty-Five led his team like the professional he was meant to be, quietly over the com-system he attempted to direct and encourage his small team,"Hostages. There's only three of them, we can do this, just have to do it quick andhard. Here's the plan guys, we'll set the trap here and lure them out, away from the hostages." He starts pointing at positions, waving his hands about like a composer as he directs his squad,"We'll set two charges here, and there on boths sides of the doorway. Me and the tech will play as the bait, you four will flank them. Minimal damage, no civilian casualties. Now let's get to work." The Agent assists the tech in setting up some explosives in the small hallway while the rest of the team sneaks around to flank the aliens. The team acknowledged using hand signals, and then went over into position. They would have to do this hard and fast. First to take down the aliens, and next to make sure that the aliens didn't just try and spray liquid plasma over intothe cowering group of civilians. And so, the team went over to ready themselves, moving ahead at the signal then, and waiting over for it to be given for when to rush in and do their thing. The first trio of the aliens was moving in a lethargic patrol as if pacing over back and forth. Now all Ben had to do was come up with a distraction that'd lure the aliens to him. He gritted his teeth at the thought, he then rose to his feet and signalled for the tech to take cover while he spoke,"I got this." He then looked around for a moment, he watched the aliens pace back and forth for a moment and when they got close enough, far enough away from the crowd, he stepped out about the corner with his visor raised, a big grin on the man's face, rifle raised at his side,"Hey fellas, I had an awesome time last night..." Ben wiggled his brows, the man was planning to go into a full insult about their alien leader and all that, but he got cut off abruptly as the alien didn't waste time inattacking the man. He then turned to race back through the hallway, in hopes that the aliens would chase him. Probably the most surrpising thing is it actually works. Probably the most terrifying thing is it actually works! Two of the aliens go to chase after him as one more remains behind over with the hostagse, making shrieks and inhuman sounds! Two of the aliens were going to chase after Agent Twenty Five and the tech, spraying rapid fire bursts of plasma as they went after him! One of them literally unsheathed an arm from the suit that was half saber, like soem sort of morbid preying mantis running after him! "Shit, shit shit shit shit.." Ben muttered as the aliens started to come after him, but one of them decidedly stayed behind as he figured they would. Ben nodded his head forward, his visor/blast shield fell forward over his face, he then popped off a few shots, one of them directed above the remaining alien, hopefully to draw his attention before he turned and bolted. He returned fire, he ran passed the tech calling out,"Come on, come on!" He grabbed the man by the shoulder and pulled, as they both raced to reach safety before the aliens made it to their trap. He then tapped his helmet to speak into the com-system,"Two agents on the third hostile, keep an eye on him and intervene if he does anything to harm the civilians." Then Ben looked back toward the doorway in anticipation, once the two aliens charged into their trap he looked to the tech,"Blow'em." Ben and the Tech were able to use Ben's knowledge of the tunnels of the subway to zig zag and use cover, the Tech managing thanks to Ben's yank to avoid having his midsection vivisected by plasma. At Ben's signal, he received a click ofthe tongue along hte commlink. So things were going well over on that end at least! At this point, they just had to deal with the two chasing after them! The two were still running over towards where had been the food court, and it seemed as if most of the food there was still out and waiting.. Ben looked to the tech questionably as the explosives didn't go off,"Problem?" Ben groaned annoyedly,"Damn technology..." He sighs,"Looks like we're doing this the old fashioned way... Get behind the food cart." Ben urged the tech, he then readied his rifle, muttering to himself,"Here we go." Ben crouched down just slightly to steady his aim on the direction where the two aliens were coming from, once they appeared he's start firing off his weapon, but he did so sparingly. A couple shots, aimed for their heads, once they moved in closer, the one with the half-saber taking a swing at him, Ben rolled to the side to avoid the attack, he aimed for the half-saber and popped off a couple more shots before finishing that manuever with another shot to the alien's face. These aliens were terribly resilient and resistant to their earthly weapons unfortunately, so Ben wasn't suprised if all that didn't amount to anything. The explosion didn't go off. Perhaps the detonator was damaged. Perhpas it had been jammed. Or just perahps that it was no plan survived contactw tih the enemy. A few snapped shots over at the aliens sent *SPANGS* going off their heads then as Agent Twenty Five and the Tech were pinned down. The alien black armored battle masks gave them good face protection against anything but concentrated rifle or AT fire, and thier bodies were resistant to shots as well. Unsheathing it's other arm, uncaring of the hostages itw as supposed to be guarding, the alien went to launch itself towards Ben, long arms with blades leaping towards him like a grasshopper! Ben called out into his com-system,"We could use some help in the food court any time guys!" Ben turned the insect winged alien as it flew at him, he aimed his rifle and with pinpoint accuracy started to concentrate a linear line of fire that started with the alien's chest as it was in the air and ended with the shotspinging off it's face mask as it landed right ontop of him. Ben got knocked down, he winced as he hit the floor hard beneath the wait of the alien. His fire haulted momentarily, but he raised that rifle back up to continue firing on the alien, screaming at the top of his longs all savage-like,"Ahhhh!!! I'm not going down without a fight!" Either blade of the alien smashed into the ground on the side of Ben's head, it slashing into it but missing vivisecting him. Letting out a HSS as it tried to slash at him, but his rifle sent it clattering away as it rolled, him managing to get a few good shoots at it as it bled out green goo, letting out a HSST once again! Ben squirmed then, this wasn't a very good predicament for the agent to be in and when the tech started to assist with some plasma-fire of his own, it created enough of a distraction for Ben to grab the large alien by the forearm s and jam a foot up his rear. With a quick thrust and a pull, Ben managed to monkey flip the alien over him and he rolled back to his feet, to one knee actually as he turned to face the alien, a rather twisted grin at the corner of his lips, the man reached up to flip his blast shield to reveal his face again as he stared down the wounded alien,"This is my home, you son of an alien-whore, and I'll be damned before I ever let you take it from me." Ben's finger slippeddown the side of the barrel, flipping a switch, he tilted the rifle back to expose that grenade-launcher underneath, grinning the entire time because he was sure that he had the alien right where he wanted him at this point,"You lose." He then pulls the trigger, aiming to fire that grenade right down the alien's throat more or less. The alien took the grenade right over in the mouth, and let out a *BELCH* then as it expoded inside. Of all the ironies, the armor also prevented you from being hosed down with the shrapnel at close range then as it tumbled over, the alien being vivsisected along the troso as it stumbles then over, and the tech raised over, "nice kill man. Going to have to put that head up on the wall back at the bar." OF course, said tech ducked as some melting ichor sizzled on his cheek. "And come no, we've gotta escort the hostages back out." Agent Twenty-Five nodded in agreement,"Yea. Let's get those hostages to safety and make sure those explosives we set are disarmed." And that was that, it was another day on the job for Ben, or maybe a little more so than usual. They had six agents, and a hundred or so frightened civilians milling abuot, and the alien had definitely been able to get a report off of sorts, so they were probably going to have to deal wtih reinforcements sooner rather than later. And that's why Agent Twenty-Five immediately started to direct the agents and civilians as calmly and quickly as he could, the intention was to get them to safety and out of harm's way before reinforcements could arrive,"Alright, listen up. We've got transports on the way to get you all out of here, I need everyone to remain calm until they arrive and on my signal, everyone is going to single-file into the transports calmly and peacefully." Ben then turned to the tech,"Radio up headquarters, get a couple busses over here so we can get these people out of here." And that's why Agent Twenty-Five immediately started to direct the agents and civilians as calmly and quickly as he could, the intention was to get them to safety and out of harm's way before reinforcements could arrive,"Alright, listen up. We've got transports on the way to get you all out of here, I need everyone to remain calm until they arrive and on my signal, everyone is going to single-file into the transports calmly and peacefully." Ben then turned to the tech,"Radio up headquarters, get a couple busses over here so we can get these people out of here." The tech gave a thumbs up,a nd went on, "Just imagine it's that part of the airline thing where they're droning on. Everyone, please keep a move on and we'll all be fine." Him going to setup his comm signal to send a message out to the field office then as the civilians, for once, went to cooperate. Then the tech muttered to himself, "one room down, one thousand, four hundred and thirty five to go.." Agent Twenty-Five then turned to the rest of the team,"We need to set up a parameter, I need you there, you here, you over there, and you covering there...." Nothing to demanding, just standard military-like proceedures and tactics were issued. The intent was to secure the area until the transports arrived, and hopefully they arrived soon. They would arrive at the surface unharried. And once there, after passing off the civilians.. They would have to go back down to finish sweeping up the rest of the station. An amused glint went in the eyes of the tech, "once more into the breech." It was 'unto', but no one wuold probably correct him.